I’ve wanted to write up this N.D.G. gem for more than a year now. Why not do it sooner? Well, I’ve been waiting for the restaurant to get its liquor licence. I’m not the only one: Owner Matthew Rouleau, who took over what was until recently called Vino Vin Terrasse and has been working to get the alcohol permit back, must be more impatient than me. The irony of running a restaurant named for wine and not being able to serve any was getting a little old, he said about renaming the place Prohibition. As of this summer, they’ve invested in a new sign out front, and there’s a sense they’re determined to stick it out.

In the meantime, even without a cocktail to get you started, there’s plenty to draw you in. And with the patio open, it’s the perfect time to visit. The outdoor tables have a more uplifting ambience than the interior, which — while pleasant enough — is somewhat dark and generic, with an empty bar and a white baby grand piano that makes the room look like the set of a sitcom.

This is strictly a daytime operation — brunches and lunches — and the kitchen does those meals particularly well. The menu hits just the right chords between comforting and creative. In the kitchen, chef Raquel Zagury is what it’s all about. Brunches are carefully crafted affairs, with a sort of a nouveau-Jewish food theme going on – call it a diaspora diner.

I hadn’t forgotten my first taste of those lemon ricotta pancakes. Ordering them again recently, I was impressed once more with those sour citrus and sweet flavours. The stack of five is served with some princely slabs of bacon, thick cut and smoky with a mellow mapley sweetness. Plates here strike a wonderful balance between personal vision and precision. Shakshouka, a Sephardic (originally North African) egg dish that has been popping up around town, is another highlight. The spiced sauce of cooked down red pepper and tomatoes has eggs baked in it (more like hard-poached). It’s served with wedges of laffa bread, heated on the grill and skewered.

A plate of challah French toast and fried chicken is completely over the top. Instead of the typical waffles and fried chicken, Zagury subs in slices of egg bread that are at least an inch and a half thick, bringing in all the deep-fried decadence of beaver tails, only better. The chicken is juicy and tender, in a batter that flakes and shatters easily, and there was not a bit of bone in the chunk I wrested away from my brunch partner.

The same flair is apparent at lunch, which features some brunch items, and heftier fare like the ground-in-house sirloin burger with “special sauce” or sausage banh mi done in a pita instead of Vietnamese-style French bread.

We began by splitting the salad of baby kale, feta, cherry tomatoes, corn and maple bacon vinaigrette. It doesn’t sound highly original, but makes a particularly harmonious whole. Outside, in the sunlight, it was a joyous thing to munch on and we appreciated that they took the initiative of dividing one huge portion onto two plates.

The jerk shrimp po’ boy is a play on the New Orleans standard. There were things I loved about this sandwich: the grilled romaine heart was brilliant, the lettuce bringing moisture and crunch, the creaminess of the remoulade, and it must have been the habanero jelly that gave it that extra kick. The combo of firm shrimp, crusted in spices amid so much fluffy, airy bread made us both a little dry in the throat, though.

The prospect of bagel and salmon wasn’t particularly exciting, but Zagury rejigs typical fixings to great effect. House-cured gravlax sinks into a layer of scallion cream cheese on a sesame bagel, topped with what’s described as pickled red salad — halved grape tomatoes, red onions and capers, and pickles. Another sunny dish.

Without much in the way of appetizers or dessert, you’re in for one dish. But the triple chocolate butterscotch pretzel cookie will do you to finish. Or you could get those lemon-ricotta pancakes to share. Just sayin’.

I like the straightforwardness of the menu, and the attention to detail here is noticeable — clearly, Prohibition is committed to doing it right. There’s a bit of a disconnect between the quality of the food and the situation around it, though: how about updating the answering machine, losing the old Vino website, and getting a pot for that cedar plant outside that keeps falling over? (Or if having people stop to straighten it up is part of a marketing plan, put the menu outside so they can become potential customers!)

Overall, this is an easy place to enjoy. Evening service, when and if they restart it, will be a real contender.

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